I. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of shoulder holsters for carrying personal communications equipment such as a cellular telephone and an electronic pager.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Shoulder holsters arc used conventionally for carrying pistols and ammunition. The advent of cellular telephones, pagers and other personal communications devices, however, has created a need for a personal-communications shoulder holster. Different from firearm shoulder holsters, it must provide flexibility and convenience for use of a different type of equipment under different working conditions.
Mere combination of a shoulder strap for a pistol holster with a container for personal communication devices does not suffice. Known shoulder straps for pistol holsters have characteristics which make them unsuitable for use with a case or pocket for carrying personal communication devices. Opposite from flexibility and resilience with body movement for convenience and comfort in carrying personal communication devices, shoulder straps for firearm holsters are rigid to position a holster where a firearm can be grasped quickly and jerked out roughly. The manner in which pistol shoulder straps are attachable to a user's body and to a holster to achieve desired positional rigidity of the holster makes them bulky, heavy, inconvenient, irritable and inappropriate for carrying small communication devices.
Personal communication devices are used in environments such as medical facilities, social events, mobile offices, athletic activities, home and family conditions. Both genders use them regularly. Visibility is less important than convenience, comfort, aesthetics and adaptability to various human factors. Firearms, however, are used in relationship to rugged conditions that require adaptability to different physical and social conditions. So different are the use conditions that the necessary structural arrangement of a shoulder strap for a pistol holster would wear sores on a user of the same shoulder strap and attachments for communication devices. They would not be used and have not been used mostly because of such differences. Different structural relationships are required for separate use conditions.
Conventional carrying cases for paging devices do not provide the ease of access and yet reliability for a communications shoulder holster. An example of a carrying case for portable electronic paging devices is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,506 granted to Swanson. The Swanson patent taught a rigid-walled container that tipped open when not held up by a flap over it. This is too bulky and sharp-edged for suspending under an arm from a shoulder strap. One's arm would have to be raised inconveniently to raise the flap and tip the container for accessing the case. Further, the direction in which it tipped did not position the contents in a normal direction of removal and replacement by a hand from an opposite side of one's body. It was designed instead to be hung on a belt and accessed from above instead of from a side angle as for an underarm position. This case and others similar to it would not be appropriate for attachment to any type of shoulder strap.
Examples of previous firearm shoulder holsters and shoulder straps with which they are harnessed onto an individual are described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,037,717 granted to Audley, U.S. Pat. No. 1,781,162 granted to Clark, U.S. Pat. No. 2,396,118 granted to Ohlemeyer and U.S. Pat. No. 2,037,132 granted to Hoyt. Audley and Hoyt employed elaborate harness arrangements. Clark and Ohlemeyer both substituted elaborateness of a harness arrangement with a stiff, shaped shoulder strap. Either structure would be very inconvenient for the light-duty, soft and often visible carriage and use of small electronic communication equipment.
Further, shoulder straps for firearms are restricted by technical specification and by industrial information to use with firearm holsters. Non-obvious change from present shoulder-holster technology is required to structure the personal communication shoulder holster taught by this invention.